started this in another forum and it was a big hit so i figured id start it here to. so how did you all get started?
how did you get started mountain biking
- Thread starter insanitylevel9
- Start date
Its my special purpose. God told me so...
I got into mtn biking as a means of cross training for motocross racing. Somehow I got hooked and thought it was a good idea to sell my dirt bike for a pedal bike. 
Got started riding for real when a neighbor mentioned him and his son were going to a charity bike ride, and if I would like to come. So I decided to check it out, shortly after that ride I started hanging around with friends at school that rode dh. So thats how I started mtn biking, I started road riding because I was bored and wanted to prove to my brother that I could descend faster than he could...I won that bet.
As a means to bang hot chicks and make tons of money.
To meet women. Dirty, sweaty women who arent afraid of a scar or two.
A surfer buddy took me for a ride during a flat spell. Turned out I loved it and I slowly watched it take over my life from surfing.
i ruptured my meniscus in my right knee while playing football (or soccer) and the doctor suggeted a low impact sport "like swimming or cycling" for strength building. swimming s*cks, so i started road riding, switched to MTB, and ended up riding DH two years later, at age 30... low impact my a$$... 
my knee is ok now, but the rest of my poor body is pretty beaten up. but that's no reason to stop.
my knee is ok now, but the rest of my poor body is pretty beaten up. but that's no reason to stop.
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When I was five, my Dad took my training wheels off and pushed me down a hill in our backyard. Game on since.
Got into riding bikes to lose weight for football (NOT soccer) when I was in eighth grade and there were weight restrictions...hated running, so cycling was a good way to go. Rode some with my friends and then just constantly progressed on my own for the last 15 years or so. Got a job at a shop around 16 and worked there for a few years too.
A girl friend got me into it. She was a good rider, which made me improve my riding skills quickly or fall behind on rides. The next thing I knew I was hooked.
I was staying with some friends in daytona beach and they were all "Let's go for a bike ride!" They gave me an ancient, rusty beach cruiser and we rode like 30 miles that day. I was looking for a new sport and just went from there.
friend of mine started riding mountainbikes back in like 92...
tried it out and liked it, did xc till 96 then quit biking alltogether.
98 a friend of mine asked me to go to kaprun and watch the world cup there
bought my first full suspension bike (nicolai Virus) one month later
tried it out and liked it, did xc till 96 then quit biking alltogether.
98 a friend of mine asked me to go to kaprun and watch the world cup there
bought my first full suspension bike (nicolai Virus) one month later
by pedaling
Lived in Tacoma, needed a form of transportation (married with one car), bought a bike. Learned about layering because of the weather up there.
Similar story here. I used to have a bigwheel that I'd start at the top of our lawn (pretty steep/long hill) and ride to the bottom, weaving through trees using my feet as brakes (was going WAY too fast to have the feet on the pedals). There's a great picture of me when I was ~5-6 doing that in my Easter Sunday suit (have to see if I can dig that up somewhere).
For two wheelers, about that time my parents found an old 12" wheeled bike with no chain that someone was throwing out. Found out that I could balance on it as long as I was coasting downhill, and when I got to the bottom I just fell over.
By the time I got a "proper" 20" wheeled bike, I was taking anything I could offroad, usually in trails through the woods on my parents property. My parents lived across from an empty section of woods that was frequented by motos / quads, and so I had access to all sorts of trails, and pretty much destroyed any bike I got riding it back in there (early/mid 80s bikes weren't exactly that great).
Got out of mtn biking a bit during the college years, but the year after I graduated I wasn't doing much but sitting on the couch throughout the winter feeling fat and lazy. I needed to get out and do *something*, and a friend of mine who'd rode bikes with me in HS told me that he'd put an Alu hardtail on layaway at Walmart. It was so light that he could "lift it with *one* hand"!!! I thought that was a great idea, and went out and bought a 1999 GT Aggressor hardtail... My friend rode his bike 3-4 times before deciding it wasn't for him, and I got hooked, riding pretty much every day. Got a couple other friends hooked on it, upgraded parts of the GT, met and started riding with other people, bought a Bullit, went on DH trips to Killington and Plattekill, met this guy Ska_Todd online who worked for a local bike company, talked my way into a job interview, and the rest is history.
Thanks again for the hcor PM back in 2003, Todd!!
Had a bike. Lived near some woods. Rode there.
same here. :Cheers:
also, where my parents lived there wasn't a whole ton of stuff to do, and biking was something I could do. I discovered hiking and dirtbike trails nearby that I got started on.
I won 91x free bike weekend radio contest in 1992. It included tickets to the outdoor convention in San Diego. I got a funky 2 wheel drive bike (don't even recall the name now) and had a blast on this rigid POS with plastic drivetrain.
Wait. Bikes? I thought we all rode monkey's here. 
When I realized I couldn't climb four flights of stairs at work without being winded. 1995.
When I realized I couldn't climb four flights of stairs at work without being winded. 1995.
Buddy at work told me he and a few other guys did it. I said I heard about mt biking and wanted to try it. I bought a crappy chain store bike in case I didn't like it and went with him. He was way out of shape and never rode again, but I liked it and three years later bought my first really nice $$ bike. That was 1997. Rest is history. I can't tell people how much fun it is but you can't drag people to the woods. They don't know what they're missing.
I outgrew my bmx bike so I bought a mtn bike. I tried to jump it and it ended poorly. I decided to try using it for its intended purpose and haven't looked back. I bought a proper jumping bike too.
I have been riding for 40 phugging years! I have a hard time coming to terms with that... Seems like a long time.
seems like the poison ivy would have gotten you by now
Did you know that you can get it in the winter? I added 7 more miles to that trail you rode on.
The owner of a bike shop I frequented talked me into buying one.
It has been almost all down hill ever since.
It has been almost all down hill ever since.
I started mountain biking as a means to quicken my commute to the meth lab.
i rode flatland bmx and as i got "older" my recovery from injuries began getting slower.as a result i got fatter.i got a rockhopper to get exercise and got a whole new life,i feel like a kid again now i ride with cats older than me and flat out smoke me,i cant wait to get older.as long as i physically can.i will ride.
I started riding Mtn. bikes in 2003 after a buddy convinced me to watch Down. Immediately went out and bought a DH bike after watching it.
Riding off road and jumping our bikes was just something we did since my first bike. The mountain was just a better tool that came along replacing the BMX bike.
My roommate and I were fanatic road riders, and we had a couple of one-speed coaster brake "town bikes" for local errands.
One day we took them out on a trail, and it was a gas, so we kept doing it. Over the next couple of years a few of our friends got interested, and we even started racing our funky bikes down a steep hill.
Old bikes had some drawbacks though, so we modified them for our use, but eventually reached the limit of how much you could do with an old bike. One of my friends built a custom frame for me and it was a big breakthrough, so a few other people started building frames for this kind of riding. My best friend and I decided we could probably sell a few of these bikes, so we rented a garage and started assembling custom off-road bikes. Gary Fisher and I called our little company "MountainBikes."
One day we took them out on a trail, and it was a gas, so we kept doing it. Over the next couple of years a few of our friends got interested, and we even started racing our funky bikes down a steep hill.
Old bikes had some drawbacks though, so we modified them for our use, but eventually reached the limit of how much you could do with an old bike. One of my friends built a custom frame for me and it was a big breakthrough, so a few other people started building frames for this kind of riding. My best friend and I decided we could probably sell a few of these bikes, so we rented a garage and started assembling custom off-road bikes. Gary Fisher and I called our little company "MountainBikes."
as something to do with me then wife that was cheap, fun, outside. bought a specialized hardrock push/push 7 speed for $100 out of the paper in mar of 94
My neighbor rode for Kona and was good friends with Shaums and kirkaldie (sp?). So ya...I was curious and that lead to some good riding.
We used to take our BMX bikes and ride around the hills by my house as a kid. Eventually we began pushing them up the big hills and riding down. If you had a BMX cruiser you were set as they had bigger wheels. We didn't bother with gears as we weren't riding up and we were not about to weld a hanger on our BMX bikes. (Our parents would have killed us!) The first time I heard of anyone riding a purpose built "mountian bike" was in the early 90's. I got one shortly after and started riding this crazy "10 speed with big tires" in the hills by my house. 93-ish I think.
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I went to blockbuster, perused the aisles and found Downhill Domination. After a week of playing I figured the real thing would be fun. Best thing video games ever did for me.